By Marshall Weiss, The Dayton Jewish Observer In 2006, Yad Vashem published a diary in which 14-year-old Rutka Laskier, a Polish Jew, wrote about her life for four months in 1943, until her deportation and murder in Auschwitz. A non-Jewish friend of Rutka had safeguarded the diary for six decades.

The public is invited to attend three readings of a new play, Anschel, by Michael London, based on the book Anschel’s Story by Renate Frydman. The Dayton Holocaust Resource Center’s founder and director, Frydman published the book in 2017. It’s her late husband’s story of survival in Nazi-occupied Poland. Told

By Marshall Weiss, The Dayton Jewish Observer In a talk at Temple Israel nearly 30 years ago, celebrated local artist Ray Must made a point that was important to him: “I am a Jew who is an artist, not a ‘Jewish artist.’ My work is directed to wider audiences and

It’s fitting that the first special exhibition in the Folger Shakespeare Library’s new Stuart and Mimi Rose Rare Book and Manuscript Exhibition Hall is drawn entirely from the Dayton couple’s own exceptional collection. After a four-year renovation, the Folger reopens Friday, June 21 with the new exhibit, Imprints in Time,

Book Review By Martin Gottlieb, Special To The Dayton Jewish Observer In mid 20th-century Chicago, there was a shoe store chain called O’Connor and Goldberg. Adult Jews thought that was so funny: an only-in-America story. Younger Jews didn’t really see anything noteworthy about the name until their elders explained. Now

By Stephen Silver, JTA When Mel Brooks was filming The Producers, he recalled an executive approaching him and saying, “The curly-haired guy—he’s funny looking. Fire him.” Brooks said he would fire the actor, but never intended to actually do it. And when The Producers came out, it became a classic

By Linda Buchwald, New York Jewish Week In the documentary Nathan-ism, Jewish artist Nathan Hilu is hardly ever without a Sharpie or crayon in his hand, drawing something from his memories. Hilu was a Lower East Side native who, as a U.S. soldier at 19, was assigned to guard Nazi

By PJ Grisar, Forward Enough time has passed, the Vatican decided in 2019, to examine the record of Pope Pius. The church unsealed papal archives long sought after by historians, and researchers have begun to paint a damning portrait. Pius XII, the head of the church through World War II,

Documentary celebrates lost world more marvelous than Mrs. Maisel ever knew By Dan Pine, J. The resorts are gone now, either demolished or rotting in the humid air of upstate New York. But for nearly a century, the Catskill Mountains served as a lush playground for America’s upwardly mobile Jews.

Dayton Contemporary Dance Company’s preprofessional ensemble, DCDC2, will perform When Dance Transcends Barriers: A Story of Jewish & African American Dance in Dayton at 3 p.m., Sunday, April 7 at Beth Jacob Congregation. The original work celebrates the legacies of DCDC founder Jeraldyne Blunden, and her longtime mentors, Dayton Ballet